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yoke, noun and verb  The English word yoke has two distinct meanings, each with its own imagery for metaphors.

A yoke can be a bar, usually made of wood, fitted on the necks of two animals and attached to a farm implement or conveyance.  The yoke makes possible the use of the combined strength of two animals ─ usually oxen, or horses, or mules.  As metaphor, yoke can be used to identify two animals that have been paired for work, even if they are not physically linked at the moment.  The same metaphor, either as a noun or a verb, can be used of human beings who have been linked for a specific task.

            A yoke can also be frame fitted to the neck and shoulders of a single human being.  Pails or baskets are suspended from the frame, which extends slightly beyond the shoulders.  This device can enable an individual to carry loads far in excess of what is possible to carry by hand.  The individual sort of yoke can be used as a metaphor indicating responsibility, obligation, servitude, or slavery.¹

            Hebrew has three words that are translated yoke.  In both its literal and figurative sense, ol is used much like its English equivalent; it can mean the bar linking two animals or the bar worn by an individual human being.  The bar itself, exclusive of its fittings, is called motah, which is the word for any wooden pole.  The third word, tsemed, literally means paired or coupled.  Because tsemed does not appear as a metaphor in the Hebrew Scriptures, we will concentrate on the other two Hebrew words for yoke. 

ol in the literal sense

         Now then, get ready a new cart and two milch cows that have never borne a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home, away from them.  [I Samuel 6:7]

        This is a statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish and on which no yoke has been laid.  [Numbers 19:2] 

ol as metaphor

         By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you break loose, you shall break his yoke from your neck.  [Genesis 27:40]

         I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be their slaves no more; I have broken the bars (motah) of your yoke and made you walk erect.  [Leviticus 26:13]

         Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam, "Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke that he placed on us, and we will serve you."           [I Kings 12:3-4]

         I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains trample him under foot; his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden from their shoulders.  [Isaiah 14:25] 

motah in the literal sense

         The Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord.  [I Chronicles 15:15]

        Thus the Lord said to me: Make yourself a yoke of straps and bars, and put them on your neck. . .  Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, and broke it.  [Jeremiah 27:2, 28:10] 

motah as metaphor

         Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?  [Isaiah 58:6]

         Go, tell Hananiah, Thus says the Lord: You have broken wooden bars only to forge iron bars in place of them!  [Jeremiah 28:13]

        The trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase. They shall be secure on their soil; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke (ol), and save them from the hands of those who enslaved them.  [Ezekiel 34:27] 

If you look at the excerpts from the Jeremiah story quoted above, you will see how a metaphor could become a concrete symbol.  In trying to get the attention of the people, Jeremiah engages in what is sometimes called guerilla theater.  He makes a common figure of speech into a prop for his performance.  In all probability, the Jeremiah story influenced the use of the yoke metaphor among the followers of Jesus.

            The Greek word for yoke used by the early Christians is zygos, which literally meant a coupling.  (Zygos is the root of the English word zygote, the union of a sperm and an egg.)  Like the words yoke and ol, in the literal sense zygos could mean either the device for linking two draft animals or the one borne on the neck and shoulders of a human being. 

zygos as metaphor

         Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.  [Matthew 11:29-30]

         Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?  [Acts 15:10]

         For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.  [Galatians 5:1]

         Let all who are under the yoke of slavery regard their masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be blasphemed.      [I Timothy 6:1]

Most people in the industrial world have never seen either kind of a yoke in use.  They may have seen a yoke in a museum or hanging on the wall for decoration in a rustic bar or restaurant, but the yoke metaphor is not likely to carry with it the emotional content that it would have had for the people Jeremiah and Jesus were teaching.  Metaphors related to weight, however, are still used and understood: load, baggage, burden, and freight.  Note that in the Matthew passage quoted above, yoke is paired with burden.  This metaphor, in Greek phortion, seems to have about the same meaning as zygos. 

phortion as a metaphor similar to zygos

        They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.  [Matthew 23:4]

        Jesus said, "Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them.”  [Luke 11:46]

         All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor's work, will become a cause for pride.  For all must carry their own loads.      [Galatians 6:4-5] 

Although yoke and burden can be understood as parallel metaphors in the teaching that Matthew attributes to Jesus, the modifying adjectives that accompany them in Greek have quite different connotations.  The modifier for burden is elaphros, which in this context can only mean light, but the yoke of Jesus is said to be chrestos, which means useful, suitable, worthy, or good.  This description is a complete reversal of every other figurative use of yoke in the Bible.  The yoke from Jesus is not to be resented, broken or laid aside but happily accepted.  To live well, every person needs a sense of obligation and a willingness to serve but not such as will become a crushing burden of compulsive behavior or of guilt.²  The yoke from Jesus is useful, and the load attached is not too heavy to carry. 

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1.       For slavery, see From Literal to Literary, pp. 234-238.
2.       For guilt, see From Literal to Literary, pp. 116-118.

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From Literal to Literary: The Essential Reference Book for Biblical Metaphors